The New Orleans Trip was just that! A real Point A-to-Point B type of thing. Less of a vacation or a Show and more of an Experience to be remembered and drawn from in later days.

We were fortunate to have a lot of help putting this thing together. We were also very lucky to have the ability to capture both nights in a re-mixable format. This gave us the ability to reset individual levels of the instruments, just as we would in mixing a studio album.

We were initially thinking of putting out a single or double CD of the highlights from the weekend, but as we listened to the tapes, it became difficult to decide what to toss out.

As a Clash fan, I’ve always liked the story that when the Clash wanted to put out a double album, the record company told them they could not do that. They responded by telling the label to put it out and the Band would just take less money for it. That album was London Calling and was a huge success for them.
It was such a success, in fact, that their next record turned out to be a Triple album! The story further goes that the record company told them that it would be commercially impossible to put out a triple record and the Band said, “Well, just price it like it was a double album”.
I should say at this point, that I don’t have sources for any of this and that it’s just rumors that I’d heard at the time. I just repeat them to explain that it’s just in my DNA (to speak only for myself here) to love when bands do stuff like that. My introduction to Wilco was hearing a similar story about a double record of theirs, which made me like them right from the get-go.

All this to say that we wanted to put out the entire weekend, so we did!
4 CDs! And, since we are our own Record Label, we got to price it as a double CD ($29.50). Take that Sandanista! (the triple Clash Record).

It’s called “Live at the Leaf”. You can pick it up here…
Mr. Blotto: Live At The Leaf

Some highlights include…

-The “They’re dancing in Chicago/And down in New Orleans” lines during Dancing in the Streets. It felt like this Motown jem was written specifically for us for that specific night. Gotta love when that happens…

-Performing the entire “Crescent City Ghost Story”, narration included, in the City that inspired it.

-Debuting “Moz” (pronounced “Mose”). It’s only the second Instrumental song we’ve ever released.

-Getting Marti Gras Indian Chief Bo Dollis Jr. up in full regalia for Injuns They Are Comin’ and drifting into the NOLA chant we know as IKO IKO.

-The pairing of Got Nothin’>Corner of My Eye. We’ve done this before a few times, but I don’t believe it’s been released. Corner of My Eye isn’t even on a Record. Yet.

-Roundabout. As a Bassist, I love the Chris Squire lines on this Yes song. The fact that we do some serious reworking in our arrangement just makes it more fun to play. We’ve only done it 2 or 3 times, so it’s nice to have it here in this collection.

These are just a few things that stand out to me. To some who were there, other moments will undoubtedly leap to mind. For those who didn’t make the trip, here’s hoping that it puts you in the Room with all of us!

And remember, if you enjoy it half as much as we enjoyed making it, then we had twice as much fun as you!

NOTE-“Live at The Leaf” will be officially released at Hotel Blotto in LaPorte, IN on Feb. 15th & 16th.

-Chief